Historical Quilt Exhibit

In August my Mom and I viewed a very special quilt show at the historical museum in the public library.

There was a pair of vintage crazy quilts sewn by a local women's group. Because of the dates in the embroidery, it is known that the quilt was made in the twenties.

Rummage Business Booming Sales

Several people have shown interest in the deer hides that my friend has for sale. One man came dressed in his explorer costume and he bought several buckskins for the Rendezvous that is taking place at the RiversidePark today. Later, a high school classmate of mine came by and chose a larger leather piece to use as a backdrop for his photography business.

More of my Avon products sold, so I brought over a few more items to fill the table. Again, the skin care items are moving the fastest. I'll have to remember that for the next rummage extravaganza.

Side Trip to Mill End Textiles

Rochester's location of Mill Ends has a updated face lift to the front of its store. The exterior now has a brick front and super large windows.

The night we were there it was threatening to storm. We shopped around and put plenty of sewing treasures in the cart. By the time we were ready to check out a torrential downpour had begun. The lights flickered more than once, but luckily the power did not go out.

The yellow and blue strip quilt is now quilted with a medium meander, and I am almost done sewing on the binding.  Hope to post another photo of it soon.  I love the flannel backing of this one because it stays in place on my lap. 

What's Happening

Spent the day selling off some extra Avon products at my friend's rummage sale. That went really well and so tomorrow I'll add new products. More make up and skin products sold than I expected. Last year bath products flew off the table, but none sold yet this year.

My mom and I were into a great cake decorating project yesterday afternoon and for an hour today. We made Mini cakes like classic iPods for my niece's tenth birthday.

fondant for details

iPod cakes done!

July 4th Fireworks

The fireworks were shot off the pier in Mackinaw City. We were lucky enough that our hotel room faced the lake so we were able to place our chairs on the front lawn and had the convenience of no traffic to fight after the show.

We noticed some odd floating lanterns that seemed to be released randomly. Apparently, it was something that could be purchased and lit then they float up into the sky like a balloon. One happened to land on the road right in front of us right after the fireworks show was over. My husband went over to see it when it fell on the road. He said it was made of some kind o thin paper. Perhaps it is made to be biodegradable.

Lloyd-Flanders Wicker

When we stopped for gas in Menominee, Michigan, I noticed an interesting factory right across the street. I wasn't sure what they manufactured, but I snapped a photo so I could look them up later.

I see they make fine wicker furniture and lovely replacement cushions for many styles of wicker. I do love the wicker look for summer while relaxing on the patio.

This company has many creative designs and many photos of retired sets to help people identify their sets for ordering new cushions.

Summer Vacation

Mackinac Island, here we come!

Quilting Report

A friend and I have been a part of the Sparta quilt shops club for many years. We usually made the blocks for a sampler club quilt. It involved making a block month.   Most times I put them together during Christmas vacation and then sewed the borders on during summer vacation.  I took two of the quilts to my neighbors shop, Carol's Corner to be long arm quilted.  They turned out beautifully!

This summer I am going to need to play catch up, because I didn't finish my blocks from last year. 

If I get the stuff out and play with the pieces I might be more inspired to work on it. 


Today we are on our way to the Minnesota quilt show in Rochester!  We will be enjoying ourselves and may even have some time to sew in the hotel room!  I am going to pack a bag of sewing jobs and I'll take one of my machines along. 

More Time in the Garden

The lilies have been extraordinarily beautiful this year.  Earlier that usual too!  Here are some of my favorite Asian Lilies in several hot colors.  They are blooming beautifully this week. 

I've been pulling weeds endlessly and putting down some mulch. The husband's been keeping control of the unwanted volunteer trees along the fence line. They got totally out of control in the last 3 years. He battled them with the Saws-All tool and the tree pruner. Then I saw him with the industrial size container of round up. I hope that does them in.

I am waiting patiently for the Stargazer Lilies to open.  They usually are a bit later than my Asian ones, so maybe by the end of the month.  They are quite tall this year and will probably open up at my eye level. 

Time for Gardening

I rode my bike down to the Garden Fest, but was still able to transport a cut angel vine using my front basket.








I asked about cutting off trimmings and rooting. They said they do it all the
time with this plant back at the greenhouse. It will be nice to have extra to give away to other gardeners .

Clicking Away in Vintage Style

Here is an i Pad app that I've recently discovered. The icon of the vintage typewriter is what caught my eye. The app is called "miTypewriter" and it is a fun way to create simple messages or informal documents.

I'll probably want to play around with this one some more especially for sending impromptu messages by e-mail.  It might be fun for some creative writing effects also.  Any other ideas out there?

Here is a link to the site for the app.  At just $1.99, it brings its user plenty of old fashioned fun.

Start of the Rain Lilies

Just set the pot back out and already the flowers popped up, even before the leaves. Rain lilies are awesome!

Test post

Just practicing with my new toy. Last Monday my ipad was shipped to my house. I am testing if I can use it to post to my blog.I think this message may work, but I am unsure about adding a photo.

Two Tries for the Broken Dishes Block

The first version of broken dishes turned out way to big!  I'll be making it into a mug rug.  I was more careful to trim each half square triangle down to exactly 2 inches and this solved the problem for the second version.

Success, the block is now the same size as the rest of my set.  Now on to the basket one.  I think I'll be making it with pinks and browns.

Beginning a Friday Night Sew In

Go to Heidi's blog to sign up or get involved by reading what other quilters are working on tonight.

Tonight I hope to make progress on a cute table runner.  I need to have it ready to take to the quilt shop tomorrow afternoon for the monthly meeting. 

I'll be needing about 18 - 24 charm squares and a few 1 1/2 inch strips and some large ric-rac trim.  I am going to just about clear out one pack of Thimbleberries charms that are leftover from the quilt club 2 years ago! 
 

The pattern I'm following was provided by the quilt shop.

If I finish my "homework", I'll be rewarded with a wooden nickel that is good for 1 free fat quarter.

It didn't take long at all to do up the free motion meander quilting.  Then I sewed on the brown ric rac with a warm brown thread using a small zig zag stitch. 

Just a little more to do yet as far as some handquilting.  I just did a little to follow  along the sashing strips.  There was one minor blunder as far as the ric-rac goes.  I was waiting to attach the trim on the ends until the binding was sewn on, but I forgot to insert it and I had a bit of unstitching to do to get the ric rac under the binding in 4 small places.  Oh, well it didn't take too long to fix. 

I am happy that this runner is a good fit for the endtables pushed together.

It covers the top nicely and I enjoy having them function like a coffee table.  I have other tables that work better as endtables.

In this photo the quilting shows up a little better. 

I'll be off soon to a garden show and then I have a quilt meeting to attend to collect on my wooden nickel and see the other show and tell pieces.  Later tonight, I'll have fun browsing around the blogs of the other quilters that participated in the Friday Night Sew In.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Pink

I'm back with some more string style blocks to build my collection that I started making last year.

It was so fun to work on these over the weekend and make a dent in my pink scraps.  There were pieces from pajamas that I made a few years ago and from some recently made raggy jackets and even
a few treasured pink pieces from a Hollyhock Quilt I made for an exchange. 

There's plenty of pinkness left in my scrap bag, so I'll be dreaming something else to continue sewing something else before the end of March.

Check out the blog to find out more about the Scrappy Saturdays over at SoScrappy. 

Anticipating Spring

Swamp Inspired Mini Garden

I recently attended a session on miniature gardening at the local greenhouse.  We were learning about creatively planting little landscapes in containers.  There was a talk and demo involved and a couple of nice handouts.

After seeing that cute pink leaved spike plant, I brought one home.  I am keeping it in the kitchen until the weather is more mild outside.

Next session is to be held in May and it will possibly be a hands on workshop!  Hope it will fit in my schedule.

This was the sweetest little garden and it contains a parsley and a mini cyclamen with pink blossoms.  The plant in the front is a baby tears.  The wire gazebo has a mini chandelier.